Management of the lifecycle of a cloud service modeled as a topology

ABSTRACT

A method of managing the lifecycle of cloud service modeled as a topology includes, with a processor, generating a topology, the topology representing a cloud service, associating a number of lifecycle management actions (LCMAs) with a number of nodes within the topology, associating a number of policies with a number of nodes within the topology, the policies guiding the lifecycle management of the nodes, and with a lifecycle management engine, executing the topology.

PRIORITY INFORMATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. National Stage applicationSer. No. 15/028,763 filed on May 17, 2016, which claims priority toInternational Application No. PCT/US2013/067531 filed on Oct. 30, 2013.The contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND

An increasingly larger number of business entities and individuals areturning to cloud computing and the services provided through a cloudcomputing system in order to, for example, sell goods or services,maintain business records, and provide individuals with access tocomputing resources, among other cloud-related objectives. Cloudcomputing provides consumers of the cloud with scalable and pooledcomputing, storage, and networking capacity as a service or combinationsof such services built on the above. A cloud may be designed,provisioned, deployed, and maintained by or for the entity for which thecloud computing system is created. Designing, provisioning, deploying,and maintaining a cloud computing system may be a difficult task.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate various examples of the principlesdescribed herein and are a part of the specification. The illustratedexamples are given merely for illustration, and do not limit the scopeof the claims.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a blueprint, according to one example ofthe principles described herein.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an architecture derived topology,according to one example of the principles described herein.

FIGS. 3A and 3B depict a block diagram showing a functional overview ofa topology-based management broker for designing, provisioning,deploying, monitoring, and managing a cloud service, according to oneexample of the principles described herein.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a common platform for topology-basedmanagement broker of FIGS. 3A and 3B at a high level, according to oneexample of the principles described herein.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an execution flow of the execution of atopology using provisioning policies, according to one example of theprinciples described herein.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a method for brokering a cloud service,according to one example of the principles described herein.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a method for brokering a cloud service,according to another example of the principles described herein.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a method for remediating a number ofincidents within a cloud service, according to one example of theprinciples described herein.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a method of designing a topology,according to one example of the principles described herein.

Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar,but not necessarily identical, elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Cloud computing provides services for a user's data, software, andcomputation. Applications deployed on resources within the cloud servicemay be manually deployed. This manual deployment consumes considerableadministrative time. The manual steps of deploying an application mayinclude the provisioning and instantiation of the infrastructure. Thismay include linking the installation of an application or a platformsuch as middleware and DB+ applications or deployment of an image withor without the full knowledge of the deployed infrastructure. Manualdeployment may further include numerous sequences of steps launched by auser who attempts to deploy the application. Thus, the manual linking ofan application to a deployed infrastructure consumes large amounts ofcomputing and personnel resources, and may lead to mistakes andirreconcilable issues between the application and the underlyinginfrastructure. Linking of an application to a deployed infrastructuremay be automated with a number of tools, scripts, and executables, withorchestrators automating the sequence of execution of these processes. Anumber of devices used in the designing, provisioning, deploying, andmaintaining of applications deployed on resources within the cloudservice may include data centers, private clouds, public clouds, managedclouds, hybrid clouds, and combinations thereof.

More specifically, cloud services provided to users over a network maybe designed, provisioned, deployed, and managed using a cloud servicemanager. The cloud service provider or other entity or individualdesigns, provisions, deploys, and manages such a cloud service thatappropriately consists of a number of services, applications, platforms,or infrastructure capabilities deployed, executed, and managed in acloud environment. These designs may then be offered to user who mayorder, request, and subscribe to them from a catalog via a market placeor via an API call, and then manage the lifecycles of a cloud servicedeployed based on the designs through the same mechanism. The servicedesigns in a cloud service manager such as CLOUD SERVICE AUTOMATION (CSA3.2) designed and distributed by Hewlett Packard Corporation, describedin more detail below, are expressed with “blueprints.”

Blueprints describe services in terms of the collections of workflowsthat are to be executed to provision or manage all the components thatmake up the service in order to perform a particular lifecyclemanagement action. Some of the functions of the workflows defined byblueprints are actual life cycle management actions that are thenperformed as calls to a resource provider. The resource providerconverts the calls into well formed and exchanged instructions specificto the particular resource or instance offered by a resource provider.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a blueprint (100), according to one exampleof the principles described herein. Each object (102-1, 102-2, 102-3,102-4, 102-5, 102-6, 102-7, 102-8, 102-9, 102-10, 102-11, 102-12) in theblueprint may be associated with action workflows that call resourceproviders. A number of challenges exist with a blueprint (100) approachto designing, provisioning, deploying, and managing cloud services. Thestructure of a blueprint, while consisting of objects comprisingproperties and actions linked by relationships, do not identifyrelationships to physical topologies such as, for example, the actualphysical architecture of the system that supports the cloud service.This renders it difficult to associate additional metadata with theblueprints (100) to describe, for example, policies associated with thesystem. Further, this association of policies with nodes in a blueprint(100) is not intuitive for a designer or administrator of theto-be-deployed cloud service.

Further, the structures of blueprints (100), for the same reason, aredifficult to use as models of applications or templates ofinfrastructures as CONTINUOUS DELIVERY AUTOMATION (CDA) does. CDA issystem tool utilized within a topology designer that independentlymodels infrastructure and application requirements while managingversions, configurations, and other application components. CDA 1.2 isalso developed and distributed by Hewlett Packard Corporation. Thestructures of blueprints (100), for the same reason given above, aredifficult to use as models of applications because blueprints do notdescribe the architecture of the application. Further, blueprints aredifficult to use as templates of an infrastructure because they also donot describe the architecture of the infrastructure. As a result,systems aiming at modeling application models and infrastructure orplatform templates, and mapping the application models andinfrastructure or platform templates to each other are not easilyreconciled with the blueprints because they are based on differentmethods of modeling these services.

The present systems and methods describe architecture-descriptivetopologies that define the physical architecture of a system thatconstitutes a cloud service. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing anarchitecture derived topology (200), according to one example of theprinciples described herein. As depicted in FIG. 2, the architecturederived topology (200) may comprise a number of nodes (201, 202, 203,204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215) associatedwith one another. Associations between nodes within the topology (200)are indicated by the open arrows. A number of nodes (201, 202, 203, 204,205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215) within thetopology (200) may also be aggregated with one another as designated bythe filled arrows. Aggregation is a computing term used to describecombining (aggregating) multiple network connections in parallel toincrease throughput beyond what a single connection could sustain, andto provide redundancy in case one of the links fails.

For example, the load balancer (201), web server service (202),application enterprise archive (203), and the database (204) areassociated with one another. The web server service (202) is aggregatedwith a web virtual machine (205) and its security group (213) as well asa web virtual local area network (209). Similarly, the applicationenterprise archive (203) is aggregated with an application serverservice such as the JavaBeans Open Source Software Application Server(JBoss) service (206), a JBoss virtual machine (208) and its associatedsecurity group (214), and a secure application virtual local areanetwork (210). Again, similarly, the database (204) is associated with adatabase virtual machine (207) and its security group (215), and asecure database virtual local area network (211). The web virtual localarea network (209), secure application virtual local area network (210),and secure database virtual local area network (211) are then associatedwith a router (212).

Thus, a cloud service based on an instantiation of the architecturederived topology (200) may be expressed as a topology of nodes with anumber of relationships defined between a number of nodes within thetopology. A number of properties and actions are associated with anumber of the nodes, a number of groups of nodes, a portion of thetopology, the topology as a whole, or combinations thereof. Further, anumber of policies are associated with the number of the nodes, a numberof groups of nodes, a portion of the topology, the topology as a whole,or combinations thereof. Still further, a number of lifecycle managementactions (LCMAs) are associated with the number of the nodes, a number ofgroups of nodes, a portion of the topology, the topology as a whole, orcombinations thereof.

Thus, the present systems and methods describe cloud service broker ormanager that supports both topologies and blueprints while using thesame lifecycle management engine. The lifecycle management enginesupports lifecycle management of cloud services, and mapping ofapplication models with infrastructure templates. The present systemsand methods also describe a policy-based framework for managing theprovisioning, deployment, monitoring, and remediation processes within acloud service. Further, the present systems and methods provide supportfor usage models supported by CSA, CDA, and blueprints as will bedescribed in more detail below.

As used in the present specification and in the appended claims, theterm “broker” is meant to be understood broadly as any computing deviceor a collection of computing devices in a network of computing devicesthat manages the designing, provisioning, deployment of a topologywithin the cloud, and the maintenance and life cycle management of (an)instantiated service based on that topology.

As used in the present specification and in the appended claims, theterm “cloud service” is meant to be understood broadly as any number ofservices provided over a number of computing devices that are connectedthrough a real-time communication network. Cloud services may includeservices provided on a distributed system implementing distributedhardware and software resources. In one example, a cloud service may beany service offered on a private cloud, public cloud, managed cloud,hybrid cloud, or combinations thereof. In another example, a cloudservice may be services provided on physically independent machines suchas, for example, a data center.

Further, as used in the present specification and in the appendedclaims, the terms “node or “computing device” are meant to be understoodbroadly as any hardware device, virtual device, group of hardwaredevices, group of virtual devices, or combination thereof within anetwork. Nodes may include, for example, servers, switches, dataprocessing devices, data storage devices, load balancers, routers, andvirtual embodiments thereof, among many other types of hardware andvirtual devices. Further, nodes may be representations of the abovehardware and virtual devices before execution and instantiation of atopology of which the node is a part.

Still further, as used in the present specification and in the appendedclaims, the term “topology” is meant to be understood broadly as datarepresenting a graph of nodes where branches between the nodes representrelationships between the nodes. The nodes may comprise any number ofcomputing devices located within a network. Thus, the topology of thenetwork may comprise the physical and logical layout of networkedcomputing devices, and definitions of the relationships between thecomputing devices. A number of policies and lifecycle management actions(LCMA) may be associated with the topologies, portions of thetopologies, nodes within the topologies, groups of nodes within thetopologies, and combinations thereof.

Still further, as used in the present specification and in the appendedclaims, the term “blueprint” is meant to be understood broadly as anexecution flow for allowing automation of cloud service deployment andlife cycle management of cloud services. A blue print may include afunctional description of a number of hardware and/or virtualizedcomponents included within a service such as, for example, operatingsystems, application stacks, databases. A blueprint may further includea functional description of the configuration and connectivity betweenthe hardware and virtualized components. The blueprints may also includea number of deployment models to enable the functional description to bedeployed. The blueprints may further include a set of user-configurableoptions to allow a user to configure a number of optional aspects of thedeployed service. Blueprints are an example of non architecture derivedexecutable topologies.

Still further, in addition to the blueprints described above, thepresent disclosure provides for the utilization of executabletopologies. Thus, the present systems and methods provide for theexecution and instantiation of both blueprint- and architecture-derivedtopologies. Both blueprint- and architecture-derived topologies areexecutable. Thus, as used in the present specification and in theappended claims, the term “topology” is meant to be understood broadlyas any set of executable logic or interpretable logic that may beexpressed as executable logic that defines the characteristics of thenetwork to be instantiated. The topology may define a number of nodes.Further, the topology may define and a number of policies and lifecyclemanagement actions associated with the nodes as a number of groups,individually, or a combination thereof. In one example, blueprints maybe expressed as topologies. In this example, the blueprint-derivedtopologies may also define a number of nodes and a number of policiesand lifecycle management actions associated with the nodes within thetopologies, groups of nodes within the topologies, portions of thetopologies, the topology as a whole, and combinations thereof.

Still further, as used in the present specification and in the appendedclaims, the term “policy” is meant to be understood broadly as any dataor metadata used to assist in the management of the provisioning,deploying, monitoring, enforcement, and remediation within a cloudservice. The policies may represent a number of rules or sets of rulesthat are applicable to the provisioning, deploying, monitoring,enforcement, and remediation tasks associated with a number of computingdevices within a cloud service environment.

Still further, as used in the present specification and in the appendedclaims, the term “user” is meant to be understood broadly as anyindividual or entity for whom or by whom a cloud service is designed,provisioned, deployed, monitored, policy enforced, incident remediated,otherwise managed, or combinations thereof. In one example, the user maypurchase use of the cloud service at a cost. For example, the user maypay a subscription to use the cloud resources and services, and, in thiscase, also be classified as a subscriber. In another example, a user maybe a designer or administrator of the cloud service. In still anotherexample, a user may be any individual who manages the cloud service.

Even still further, as used in the present specification and in theappended claims, the term “a number of” or similar language is meant tobe understood broadly as any positive number comprising 1 to infinity;zero not being a number, but the absence of a number.

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present systems and methods. It will be apparent,however, to one skilled in the art that the present apparatus, systems,and methods may be practiced without these specific details. Referencein the specification to “an example” or similar language means that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith that example is included as described, but may not be included inother examples.

The present systems may be utilized in any data processing scenarioincluding, for example, within a network including the design,provisioning, deployment, and management of a number of computingdevices within the network. For example, the present systems may beutilized in a cloud computing scenario where a number of computingdevices, real or virtual, are designed, provisioned, deployed, andmanaged within a service-oriented network. In another example, thepresent systems may be utilized in a stand alone data center or a datacenter within a cloud computing scenario. The service oriented networkmay comprise, for example, the following: a Software as a Service (SaaS)hosting a number of applications; a Platform as a Service (PaaS) hostinga computing platform comprising, for example, operating systems,hardware, and storage, among others; an Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS) hosting equipment such as, for example, servers, storagecomponents, network, and components, among others; application programinterface (API) as a service (APIaaS), other forms of cloud services, orcombinations thereof. The present systems may be implemented on one ormultiple hardware platforms, in which the modules in the system areexecuted on one or across multiple platforms. Such modules may run onvarious forms of cloud technologies and hybrid cloud technologies oroffered as a SaaS (Software as a service) that may be implemented on oroff the cloud.

Further, the present systems may be used in a public cloud network, aprivate cloud network, a hybrid cloud network, other forms of networks,or combinations thereof. In one example, the methods provided by thepresent systems are provided as a service over a network by, forexample, a third party. In another example, the methods provided by thepresent systems are executed by a local administrator. In still anotherexample, the present systems may be utilized within a single computingdevice. In this data processing scenario, a single computing device mayutilize the devices and associated methods described herein to deploycloud services and manage life cycles of the cloud services. In theabove examples, the design of the cloud service, provisioning of anumber of computing devices and associated software within the cloudservice, deployment of the designed and provisioned cloud resources andservices, management of the cloud resources and services, andcombinations thereof may be provided as the service.

Aspects of the present disclosure may be embodied as a system, method,or computer program product, and may take the form of an entirelyhardware embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardwareaspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,”“module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present disclosure maytake the form of a computer program product embodied in a number ofcomputer readable mediums comprising computer readable program codeembodied thereon. Any combination of one or more computer readablemediums may be utilized.

A computer readable medium may be a computer readable storage medium incontrast to a computer readable signal medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, an electronic, magnetic, optical,electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, ordevice, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specificexamples of the computer readable storage medium may include thefollowing: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an opticalstorage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combinationof the foregoing. In the context of this disclosure, a computer readablestorage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store aprogram for use by or in connection with an instruction executionsystem, apparatus, or device.

Throughout the present disclosure, various computing devices aredescribed. The computing devices may comprise real or virtual computingelements including data processing devices, data storage devices, anddata communication devices. Although these various devices may bedescribed in connection with real and physical devices, any number ofthe devices may be virtual devices. The virtual devices, althoughdescribing a software-based computer that is based on specifications ofemulated computer architecture and functions of a real world computer,the virtual devices comprise or are functionally connected to a numberof associated hardware devices. Accordingly, aspects of the presentdisclosure may be implemented by hardware elements, software elements(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.), or acombination of hardware and software elements.

FIGS. 3A and 3B depict a block diagram of a topology-based managementbroker (300) along with a designing phase for provisioning, deploying,monitoring, protecting and remediating a cloud service, according to oneexample of the principles described herein. The system of FIGS. 3A and3B support both topologies and blueprints while using the same lifecyclemanagement engine as will be described in more detail below. Thisconcept may be understood in connection with FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a common platform (400) fortopology-based management broker (300) of FIGS. 3A and 3B at a highlevel, according to one example of the principles described herein. Asdepicted in FIG. 4 a common platform for CSA (401) and CDA (406) arerepresented by the common use of service design aspects (404) andservice fulfillment aspects (405). In the case of CSA (401), theself-service portal (402) and service consumption (403) aspects of CSA(401) use the same resources as does the CDA extension aspects (407) ofCDA (406). In this manner, all use cases of instantiating a cloudservice are supported by the common platform. Thus, although topologiesmay be designed de novo via a number of topology designers and/or via aapplication model and infrastructure template stitching process, thepresent systems and methods also provide, within the same system,execution of blueprints using the systems and methods described herein.This aspect will now be described in more detail in connection withFIGS. 3A and 3B.

As depicted in FIGS. 3A and 3B, one or a number of topology designers(301) contribute in designing various aspects of the cloud servicetopology. In one example, topology design is performed via a design toolthat uses hardware devices and software modules such as graphical userinterfaces (GUI) and coding scripts. A human designer designs thetopology with the use of a design tool (301). Thus, the design of thetopology (302) is achieved through a combination of autonomous andhuman-provided design methods. In one example, the topology designer(301) may be an interface utilizing API's that enables separate creationof an application model (FIG. 3B, 319) and its associated componentsalong with creation of an infrastructure template (FIG. 3B, 320) whichspecifies infrastructure and lifecycle conditions for theinfrastructure.

The subsystem depicted in FIG. 3A of the overall topology-basedmanagement broker (200) comprises a subsystem capable of provisioning,deploying, monitoring, enforcing policies within a cloud service, andremediating incidents within the cloud service. These tasks are allperformed with the use of topologies with LCMAs and policies, whetherthe topologies are blueprint or architecture derived. Thus, the presentsystems and associated methods also support all the use cases that CSA3.2 supports. As described above, CSA 3.2 is an automation system toolused to deploy and manage cloud computing applications, and is developedand distributed by Hewlett Packard Corporation. CSA 3.2 technologies arecapable of supporting blueprints or architecture topologies. Further,CSA is described in International Patent App. Pub. No.PCT/US2012/045429, entitled “Managing a Hybrid Cloud Service,” to Maeset al., which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Aswill be described in more detail below, the subsystem depicted in FIG.3A uses a number of types of policies and lifecycle management actions(LCMAs) to provision, deploy, monitor, enforce policies within, andremediate incidents within a deployed cloud service.

Further, the subsystem depicted in FIG. 3B of the overall topology-basedmanagement broker (200) comprises a subsystem capable of independentlymodeling infrastructure and application requirements of a topology onthe same stack as the subsystem depicted in FIG. 3A. The present systemsand associated methods also support all the use cases that a CDAsubsystem such as those use cases of CDA 1.2 support. As describedabove, CDA is an automation system tool utilized within a topologydesigner that independently models infrastructure and applicationrequirements while managing versions, configurations, and otherapplication components. CDA 1.2 is also developed and distributed byHewlett Packard Corporation. Further, CDA is described in InternationalPatent App. Pub. No. PCT/US2012/041625, entitled “Cloud ApplicationDeployment,” to Maes et al., which is hereby incorporated by referencein its entirety.

In this manner, the subsystems of FIGS. 3A and 3B work under a commonstack and work together within the topology-based management broker(200) as a single computing system with common use of topologies,realized topologies, and policies to support all use cases ofconstructing topologies and supporting multiple providers' associatedtechnologies. Thus, in one example, the present systems and methodsreconcile the differing models, templates, and blueprints usedrespectively by CDA and CSA by utilizing, on the same stack, designedtopologies (preferably architecture derived) of a cloud service, anumber of policies, and a number of LCMAs associated with the topologynodes/subsets/full.

As depicted in FIG. 3A, a topology designer (301) may design and presenta lifecycle management (LCM) topology (302) to the topology-basedmanagement broker (200). In one example, the topology designers (301)described herein may be an integrated part of the topology-basedmanagement broker (200). In another example, the topology designers(301) may be separate from the topology-based management broker (200).In another example, a number of persons may use the topology designers(301) to design the topologies (302). These individuals may be servicedesigners, infrastructure architects or administrators, systemadministrators, information technology operators, offer managers, orusers, among other personnel with roles in the design of a topology. Instill another example, the topology designers (301) may be operated by athird party.

The LCM topology (302) may define a number of nodes (302-1, 302-2,302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7), and a number of relationshipsbetween the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7).Although in FIG. 3A, seven nodes are depicted, any number of nodes maybe designed into the topology (302) to achieve any data processingobjectives. In one example, the topology-based management broker (200)may represent the topology (302) as an extensible markup language (XML)file. In another example, the topology-based management broker (200) mayrepresent the topology (302) in JavaScript object notation (JSON)format; a text-based open standard designed for human-readable datainterchange that is derived from the JavaScript scripting language forrepresenting objects. In still another example, the topology-basedmanagement broker (200) may represent the topology (302) in YAML syntaxformat; a human-readable data serialization format.

In FIG. 3A, the relationships between nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4,302-5, 302-6, 302-7) are depicted as lines connecting the nodes (302-1,302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7). Each of the nodes (302-1,302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7), the entire topology (302), agroup of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7),portions of the topology (302), or combinations thereof are associatedwith a number of policies (303). Policies (303) are data or metadataprovided in the same file describing the nodes or topology, or in a fileassociated therewith. In one example, the association of the policies(303) within the topology (302) may be performed during the designing ofthe topology (302), by, for example, an administrator when offering thedesign. In another example, the association of the policies (303) withinthe topology (302) may be performed during the designing of the topology(302) when a user, for example, selects the design as a subscription orrequest.

Further, in one example, the addition of a policy (303) to the topologyor portions thereof may cause the design of the topology to change. Inthis example, a policy (303) added to an element of the topology (302)may effect a number of other policies. For example, associating with atopology (302) a policy that indicates that a node be highly availablemay evolve the policies (303) and topology (302) as a whole to require,for example, a cluster of nodes. In this manner, policies may drive thedesign of the topology (302).

Each of the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7), theentire topology (302), a group of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4,302-5, 302-6, 302-7), portions of the topology (302), or combinationsthereof are further associated with a number of lifecycle managementactions (LCMAs) (304). In examples where LCMAs (304) are associated withthe nodes, a single LCMA is associated with a given node. In exampleswhere a number of LCMAs are associated with portions of the topology(302) or the topology (302) as a whole, the LCMAs are subjected to anorchestration of resource providers.

LCMAs are expressed as a number of application programming interfaces(APIs), wherein the LCMAs are called during execution of the topology(302), and a number of computing resources are provisioned for purposesof managing the lifecycle of a given cloud capability. In one example,the LCMAs may be accessed via uniform resource identifiers (URIs) ofapplication programming interfaces (APIs) to perform calls in order toexecute the APIs. In one example, the LCMAs are provided by referencewithin the file comprising the data or metadata described above inconnection with the policies (303).

In one example, the LCMAs are associated with the aspects of thetopology by default by virtue of what computing device the node or nodes(302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) represent. In anotherexample, the LCMAs are associated with the aspects of the topology byexplicitly providing a number of functions, F_(Action), that define howto select a resource provider to implement the action based on thepolicies associated with the aspects of the topology and the policies ofthe different relevant resource providers. These functions define how aresource provider is selected to implement the action based on thepolicies associated with the aspect of the topology and the policies ofthe different relevant resource providers.

The policies and LCMAs will be denoted herein by elements 303 and 304,respectively, to denote that the policies (303) and LCMAs (304) areassociated with the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6,302-7), the entire topology (302), a group of nodes (302-1, 302-2,302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7), portions of the topology (302), orcombinations thereof. In one example, the association of the policiesand LCMAs with aspects of the topology is performed via the topologydesigner (301).

In one example, although not depicted, a subset of nodes making up agroup may also be associated with a number of policies (303) and anumber of LCMAs (304). In this example, a number of nodes, for example,nodes (302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-6, 302-7), may be associated as a groupwith a number of policies (303) and a number of LCMAs (304) associatedtherewith. Several groupings of the nodes may be present within theentire topology (302). In one example, the groups of nodes may overlap,in which a single node in a first group of nodes may also belong to asecond group of nodes, and be subjected to both the first and secondgroups of nodes' policies (303) and LCMAs (304). Policies and theirassociations with individual nodes and groups of nodes will be describedin more detail below.

The policies (303) associated with the nodes may be expressed andattached with the nodes in any manner (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4,302-5, 302-6, 302-7). In one example, the policies (303) are associatedwith the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) bydefining properties of the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5,302-6, 302-7). In another example, the policies (303) are associatedwith the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) bymetalanguage expressions.

The policies (303) are a number of descriptions, metadata, workflows,scripts, rules, or sets of rules that are applicable to guiding theprovisioning, monitoring, enforcement, governance, and remediation tasksassociated with the lifecycle management of a number of nodes (302-1,302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) within a cloud serviceenvironment in which the topology (302) is to be or has beenimplemented. The policies (303) define the access control and usagecontrol of the APIs of the topology-based management broker (200).Further, policies (303) define the access control and usage control ofthe APIs used to manage or use the instantiated services. For example,when a security threat is detected by a monitoring system (313), aremediation option may comprise making changes to a number of accesscontrol policies.

The policies (303) may be associated with and operable against a numberof individual nodes, a number of groups of nodes, a number of nodes of aclass of nodes, a subset of the nodes within the entire topology of thecloud service; the entire topology of the cloud service as a whole, orcombinations thereof. If the policies (303) are initiated on theindividual nodes, groups of nodes, or the entire topology of the cloudservice as a whole, the policies will guide how life cycle managementactions are taken with respect to, or performed on the individual nodes,groups of nodes, nodes of a class of nodes, a subset of the nodes withinthe entire topology of the cloud service, or the entire topology of thecloud service as a whole.

One example of a type of policy is a provisioning policy. Provisioningpolicies may, if implemented, define the characteristics of thecomputing devices that comprise the cloud when the topology isprovisioned, deployed, and executed. This provisioning can include theinfrastructure and platform of the topology (302). The provisioningpolicies may include definitions of characteristics such as, forexample, the physical location of a node. Provisioning policies may alsoinclude definitions of characteristics such as, for example, ageographical or deployment type location such as a network zone with orwithout access to an internet or behind or not behind a firewall, amongother geographical or deployment type provisioning policies. In thisexample, a policy may have a provisioning policy component that may beassociated with a server device that requires the server device to belocated in a particular geographic area of a country, a particularregion such as, for example, the east coast of the United States versusthe west Coast, a particular server facility, or any other geographiclocation.

As to a provisioning policy that defines a physical location of thecomputing device, other characteristics may include, for example, thelevel of security of the location or access to the internet at which thenode is located. Other provisioning policies may also include, forexample, the speed in, for example, bandwidth of the network to whichthe node is coupled, whether the node is to be connected to an internetor intranet such as, for example, a demilitarized zone (DMZ) orperimeter network, whether the node is firewalled, whether the node hasaccess to an internet, whether the node is to be located on top ofanother node, and whether the node is to be located on top of anothernode using a particular infrastructure element or platform, among otherprovisioning policies.

Provisioning policies may also, if implemented, rely on the requirementsand capabilities of the nodes within the proposed cloud service that isbased on the topology (302). Requirements define the needs of nodes(302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) such as, for example,server or network needs in relation to processing, memory, and operatingsystem (OS) needs, among other forms of needs. For example, therequirements policies may indicate that a node requires particularsoftware or a particular software version associated with it such as aparticular operating system. As another example, a requirements policymay also indicate that a particular node may require additional hardwaredevices associated with it such as, for example, a server device, aserver group, or a high availability configuration, among others.

Capabilities such as the nature of the processors, memory, capacity, OS,middleware type and version, among others, define what each node (302-1,302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) offers. Thus, in one example,capabilities policies may indicate that a node is capable of processingdata at a certain rate. In another example, a capabilities policy mayindicate that a memory device may have a terabyte (TB) of data storagespace.

In still another example, the requirements policies may indicate that anode requires a particular computing platform. When designing a topology(302), the topology or association of metadata supports capturing datadefining a number of hardware devices within the computing platformincluding hardware architecture and a software framework (includingapplication frameworks). When the metadata is presented or associated,it is used to guide provisioning policies in order to better selectappropriate elements within the computing platform such as, for example,a suitable data center. The metadata, when presented or associated, mayalso be used to guide matching fragments of topologies to otherfragments as will be discussed in more detail below in connection withstitching of application models to infrastructure templates.

With regard to capability policies, the nodes may define what kind ofdevice they are, what versions of software they capable of, or areexecuting, and what they can do. An example, of a capability policy mayinclude a definition associated with the node that defines it as anapplication server, that it provides a Java Platform, Enterprise Edition(J2EE) environment, that it runs a particular operating system, aversion of an operating system, or a particular release of a version ofthe operating system, among many other capabilities. As described above,this may be used to determine, for example, what else may be deployed orwhat other devices may use the cloud services.

Another type of policy (303) that may be assigned includes monitoringpolicies. Monitoring policies are policies that, if implemented, definethe operational monitoring of the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4,302-5, 302-6, 302-7), the security monitoring of the nodes, thecompliance monitoring of the nodes, analytics among the nodes and groupsof nodes, usage monitoring of the nodes, performance monitoring, andintelligence monitoring such as, for example, collection of metrics,business intelligence (BI) and business activity monitoring (BAM) andanalytics/big data integration, among other types monitoring-relatedpolicies.

The monitoring policies may also define what kind of monitoring isexpected and how the monitoring is to be implemented. Examples ofmonitoring policies regarding node operations include performance,monitoring CPU levels and loads of the various nodes within the network,monitoring the speed at which data is processed through a node or anumber of nodes or exchanged between nodes, and monitoring theoperational state of applications running on a node or nodes at anylevel of the network, among many other operations parameters of thenodes, group of nodes, and the cloud service as a whole.

In another example, the monitoring policies also define how monitoredevents that occur in an instantiated topology are handled. In thisexample, the monitoring policies assist an event handler (316) inreceiving and processing the events, and in making decisions regardingremediation of incidents resulting from the events, and in sendingnotification messages regarding the incidents. The handling of eventswithin the topology-based management broker (200) will be described inmore detail below. As will be described in more detail below, themonitoring policies include a portion that defines what to do with themonitored events that result from the monitoring such as, for example,how to handle the events, where the events are sent, what devices orindividuals address the events, how incidents resulting from theprocessing of the events are handled, how the events and incidents areprocessed (e.g., processed as aggregated, filtered, or correlatedevents, among other forms of processing), and how the resultingincidents are handled.

Monitoring policies also include monitoring policies regarding security.Security policies define how to monitor for abnormal behaviors orbehaviors known as being associated with known or suspected securityissues. Examples of monitoring policies regarding security includemonitoring whether a node or a group of nodes is experiencing an attack,whether there is strange behavior occurring within the cloud service orinteractions with the cloud service, and whether there is a virus orother anomaly with a node or group of nodes, among othersecurity-related monitoring policies.

Monitoring policies also include monitoring policies regardingcompliance. Examples of monitoring policies regarding complianceinclude, determinations as to whether the nodes or group of nodes arerunning an appropriate version of an operating system, determiningwhether the most recent patch associated with the release of a softwareprogram running on the nodes has been installed, determining if aninstalled patch is a correct patch, checking that a code or artifactsthat have been used to provision the node and cloud service have beenappropriately checked and vetted for any weakness or problem, ifgovernance and access control to the node and cloud service or the nodeand cloud service management is appropriate, and if settings of aprovisioned system match provisioning, security, or other compliancerequirements such as correct logging levels, correct setup for accesscontrols, and correct setup for passwords, among othercompliance-related monitoring policies.

Monitoring policies also include monitoring policies regarding usage.Examples of monitoring policies regarding usage include, determining howmuch a user has been using CPUs of a node or group of nodes, determininghow much memory a user has utilized, determining how much money has beencharged to the user, and determining whether the user has paid for theservices provided through the designing, provisioning, deploying, andmonitoring of the network topology, among other usage-related monitoringpolicies.

The policies (303) may further comprise governance policies that, ifimplemented, define access controls of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3,302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) or groups of nodes within the topology (302)or the cloud service. For example, governance policies may includepolicies that define who may access the nodes within the topology (302)or the cloud service, and under what conditions may those individualsobtain such access.

The policies (303) may further comprise analytics policies that, ifimplemented, define what is needed to ensure analytics and big datamonitoring within or among the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5,302-6, 302-7) or groups of nodes within the topology (302), and ensurethat this is occurring as expected. For example, the analytics policiesmay define a number of workflows by which the monitoring system (313)may operate to configure the cloud service, provide analytics, collectbig data, and process the data.

Still further, the policies (303) may comprise remediation policies thatdefine what actions are to take place within the topology (302) should aproblem arise or an incident be raised during deployment and executionof the topology (302). Remediation policies may include policies thatdefine a number of actions taken by the topology-based management broker(200) during remediation processes, and include: (1) providingnotifications to a user, consumer, or administrator; (2) obtaininginstructions from the user, consumer, or administrator; (3) takingmanual actions input by the user, consumer, or administrator; (4) takingautonomous actions after receiving instructions from the user, consumer,or administrator; (5) taking autonomous actions without receivinginstructions from the user, consumer, or administrator; (6) takingautonomous actions without notifying the user, consumer, oradministrator or receiving instructions from the user, consumer, oradministrator; (7) proposing a remediation action to a user oradministrator for approval, and performing the proposed remediationaction if approved by the user or administrator, or combinationsthereof.

As an example, a failure of the cloud service as instantiated orrealized by the topology (302) may occur, and the remediation policiesmay define how that failure may be handled based on the above potentialscenarios. In addition, the remediation policies provide the actualrules and workflows of actions to perform to remediate the incidentsunder any number of conditions or indicate to whom or which device todelegate the decision making and orchestration and fulfillment of theseremediation actions. Another remediation example may regard a potentialneed to maintain a level of service based on, for example, a servicelevel agreement (SLA), or a quality of service (QoS) within the cloudservice that is realized based on the topology (302). In this example,the addition of resources to support the increase in demand forresources may be handled based on the above potential scenarios. Moredetails regarding monitoring of the deployed topology and event handlingtherein will be described in more detail below.

As described above, the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6,302-7) may include a number of lifecycle management actions (LCMA) (304)associated with the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6,302-7). The LCMAs (304) are a number of actions associated with thepolicies (303) that are executed by a processor when triggered by thepolicies (303) within a cloud service environment in which the topology(302) is implemented. The LCMAs may be associated with and operableagainst a number of individual nodes, a number of groups of nodes, anumber of nodes of a class of nodes, a subset of the nodes within theentire topology of the cloud service; the entire topology of the cloudservice as a whole, or combinations thereof. If the LCMAs are executedwith respect to the individual nodes, groups of nodes, or the entiretopology of the cloud services as a whole, the LCMAs will take an actionwith respect to the individual nodes, groups of nodes, the nodes of aclass of nodes, a subset of the nodes within the entire topology of thecloud service, or the entire topology of the cloud service as a whole asdefined within the LCMAs. LCMAs (304) include actions such as, forexample, provisioning of computing resources within the topology,updating the topology, copying all or portions of the topology,modifying computing resources within the topology, moving computingresources within the topology, destroying or deleting resources withinthe topology, among other lifecycle management actions.

The various policies described herein define what actions are to beperformed throughout the lifecycle of the topology (302) before, during,and after instantiation of a service based on the topology (302).Further, the various policies described herein define how these actionsare to be performed. Still further, the various policies describedherein define which device, individual, or combination thereof to whichthe actions are to be delegated. Even still further, the variouspolicies described herein define combinations of the above. For example,any of the monitoring policies used in event handling and processing, orremediation may define what devices or portions of the cloud service areto be monitored or remediated, how to execute such monitoring andremediation, to whom or what devices to delegate the roles of monitoringand remediation, or a combination thereof.

Different policies play different roles at different times within thelifecycle of a topology. Further, the different policies may be executedat different times of the lifecycle of the cloud service and throughoutthe flows of the topology-based management broker (200). FIG. 5 is ablock diagram of an execution flow of the execution of a topology (302)using provisioning policies, according to one example of the principlesdescribed herein. In the example of provisioning policies with theirnumber of capabilities and requirements, a topology (302) may bedesigned with a number of associated policies (303) as described above.As depicted in FIG. 5, the topology (302) with its associated policies(303) may be an input (501) to a provisioning policy engine (502). Inone example, the topology (302) may be an architecture based topology. Apolicy provisioning engine (502) may be a stand alone device orincorporated into a device of FIG. 1A such as, for example, the resourceoffering manager (308). The policy provisioning engine (502) may obtaina number of provisioning policies from a resource provider calledresource provider policies (PR) (308-1), a number of provisioningpolicies as defined by a user, a number of policies as defined by thetopology designer (301), or combinations thereof.

Resource provider policies (308-1) may be any policies that associatewith a number of resource providers' offerings that guide the selectionof a number of resources. In one example, the resource provider policies(308-1) may be dynamic functions that define the computing abilities ofa computing resource. In this example, a computing resource thatprovides a defined level of computing resources such as, for example,processing power may be provisioned by the LCM engine (311) and resourceoffering manager (308) if the defined level of that computing resourcemeets a number of requirements within the topology (302).

Further, in one example, the addition of a policy (303, 308-1) to thetopology or portions thereof may cause the design of the topology tochange. In this example, a policy (303, 308-1) added to an element ofthe topology (302) may effect a number of other policies (303, 308-1).For example, associating with a topology (302) a policy that indicatesthat a node be highly available may evolve the policies (303) andtopology (302) as a whole to require, for example, a cluster of nodes.In this manner, policies may drive the design of the topology (302).

Accordingly, a designed topology such as, for example, an architecturetopology generated, for example, by an automated or manual matchingprocess with policies and LCMAs associated with the nodes of thetopology (302) is modified at the time of provisioning. This may beperformed by executing, with the provisioning policy engine (502) or theresource offering manager (308), the provisioning policies to determinea topology that satisfies the provisioning policies perfectly or in thebest obtainable manner. Obtaining a best fit topology may involve anumber of resource provider policies (308-1) provided by the resourceoffering manager (308) which describe the capabilities and selectioncriteria of a resource provider. The resource offering manager (308)selects, for example, the resource provider from which the resource isto be obtained, and may also make other modifications to the topology(302).

The topology (302) is modified per the received provisioning policies(308-1) by the provisioning policy engine (502) as indicated by arrow507, and sent to an interpreter (503). The interpreter (503) is anyhardware device or a combination of hardware and software thatinterprets the provisioning policies to create an execution plan asindicted by arrow 508. The result is then interpreted and converted intoan execution plan (508) that comprises a workflow or sequence of serialand/or parallel scripts in order to create an instance of the topology(FIG. 1A, 312). In one example, the interpreter (503) is a stand alonedevice or is contained within the LCM engine (FIG. 1A, 311). Theexecution plan (508) comprises a number of workflows or sequences ofserial and/or parallel scripts. The topology LCM engine (311) obtainsthe workflows or sequences of serial and/or parallel scripts, calls aresource provider via the resource offering manager (308) as indicatedby arrow 509, and creates an instantiated service (312) at block 505.Assuming the workflow or sequence of serial and/or parallel scripts isexecutable, which it should be in the case of an architecturedescriptive topology, the actions associated with the workflow orsequence of serial and/or parallel scripts are executed by the LCMengine (311).

With the above-described sequence based topology, an execution plan(508) may be represented as a blueprint. Conversely, a blueprint may beexpressed as an execution plan (508). A blueprint with nodes expanded bypolicies (303) and LCMAs (304) may be similarly processed, instead, in amanner similar to the processing of an infrastructure topology. In thisexample, the blueprint in the form of a sequential service design (506)is input to the interpreter for processing as described above inconnection with FIG. 5.

The execution of the execution plan (508) by the topology life cyclemanagement engine (311) results in an instantiation of the cloudservices including the provisioning of devices for monitoring, eventhandling, and processing and remediation of events and incidents as willbe described in more detail below. The result of the topology life cyclemanagement engine (311) executing the workflow or sequence of serialand/or parallel scripts as defined by the execution plan (508) is aninstantiated service (312) as indicated by block 505. Further, arealized topology (314) may be created based on the instantiated service(312), and stored as will also be described in more detail below.

As to the monitoring and remediation policies described herein, the sametype of process may be applied, but with a number of realized policiesdefined within an instantiated service (312) and its realized topology(314) as input. In this process, additional LCMAs (304) may be createdand used to assist in provisioning resources in an updated instantiatedservice (312). The explanation below across CSA/CDA use cases witharchitecture topologies or with blueprints shows the notion of commonengine, pattern, and platform across all these cases.

The present systems and methods may be used in conjunction with anythird party modeling such as, for example, HEAT command languageinterpreter that is an open source software developed and distributed bythe OpenStack Foundation and released under the terms of the ApacheLicense. Although HEAT may assist in the creation of a set of scriptsfitting in the space of the execution plan, HEAT may provide support byinterpreting or translating data, and converting the data into scripts.The present systems and methods may add the policies (303) and LCMAs(304) to the HEAT interpreter, and execute as described above.

Further, the present systems and methods may use topology andorchestration OASIS specification for cloud applications (TOSCA), acloud computing standard to express topologies. In this example, thepolicies (303) and LCMAs (304) are added to a TOSCA-based topology.

Thus, the policies (303) and the LCMAs (304) may be implemented asfunction calls (305) or scripts in order to provision and deploy thetopology (302) when the policies (303) and the LCMAs (304) trigger suchprovisioning and deployment. A resource offering manager (308) may beprovided within the topology-based management broker (200) to manage andprovide computing resources within the topology (302) based on thepolicies (302) and LCMAs (304).

The resource offering manager (308) provides a number of plug-ins toexecute the life cycle manager (311). As described above, the resourceoffering manager (308) associates a number of resource policies (308-1)to the plug-ins of a number of resource providers so that the resourceproviders may assist in guiding the selection process of a number of theresource providers. The non-resource provider policies such as policies(103) associated to the nodes are different in that they are associatedwith the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) duringthe designing of a topology (302).

The resource offering manager (308) may be operated by, for example, anadministrator, or a service provider in order to provision the resourceswithin the cloud service to be created via the deployment of thetopology (302). As discussed above, the resource offering manager (308)comprises the hardware and software to define a number of resourceprovider policies (308-1), associate a number of those resource providerpolicies (308-1) with a number of the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4,302-5, 302-6, 302-7), the topology (302), or portions of the topology(302). When the topology (302) is deployed, the resource offeringmanager (308) provides the computing resources to the user that willimplement the topology (302) based on the policies (303), the LCMAs(304), and the resource provider policies (308-1). As a result, theLCMAs are functions of the policies (303) associated with the topology(302), and the resource provider policies (308-1).

Thus, in one example, the resource offering manager (308) may implementa number of resource provider policies (308-1) that define under whichconditions a computing resource from a number of service providers maybe selected for deployment within the topology (302). In this example,the policies (303) associated with a node as well as the resourceprovider policies (308-1) define which resource offering from theresource offering manager (308) is selected for provisioning within theto-be-deployed instantiated topology (312). For example, if a policyassociated with node (302-1) requires that the provisioned computingresource be located in a secure facility, and the policies of theresources offered by the resource offering manager (308) indicate thatthose available computing resources are not located in a securefacility, then that non-secure computing resource provided by thatparticular service provider will not be selected. In this manner, thepolicies associated with the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5,302-6, 302-7) and the policies associated with the resource offeringmanager (308) determine which computing resources may be provisioned anddeployed within the topology (302).

The topology-based management broker (200) may store the topology (302)in a catalog (310). In one example, the topologies (302) designed andstored in the catalog (310) may be made available to any interestedparty via a self-service portal (309). In another example, anapplication program interface (API) may be provided instead of or inaddition to the self-service portal (309). In this example, the API maybe used by an application executing within the topology-based managementbroker (200) which may make a request from the catalog (310) for anumber of topologies (302).

In another example, the user may be given the opportunity to view thecatalog (310) of stored topologies to obtain a topology that was createdfor a first user or organization, and use a number of those topologiesas the user's topology by ordering or subscribing to a topology (302).In still another example, the user may be given the opportunity to viewthe catalog (310) of stored topologies to obtain a topology that wascreated for a first user or organization, obtain a number of thosetopologies, and add a number of other topologies to it such as in anexample where an application model is built on an infrastructuretemplate using stitching processes described below.

In still another example, the user may be given the opportunity to viewthe catalog (310) of stored topologies to obtain topologies that werecreated for a first user or organization, obtain a number of thosetopologies, and add a number of other topologies to it such astopologies designed de novo or stored within the catalog (310). In stillanother example, the user may be given the opportunity to view thecatalog (310) of stored topologies to obtain topologies that werecreated for a first user or organization, obtain a number of thosetopologies, and build a new cloud service that comprises aspects of allthe predefined topologies and the respective services described by thepre-defined topologies.

In another example, the user, a service designer, or a combinationthereof may design the topology anew, design a topology based on atopology stored in the catalog (310), or design a topology basedpartially on a topology stored in the catalog (310). Design of atopology (302) may be split among a number of users, designers, andadministrators. The designing of the topology (302) may includeseparating the design of the topology into a number of topologies andattaching to the separate pieces of the individual topologies and thetopology as a whole a number of properties, LCMAs, and policies. Theuser may also order a desired topology, be given an opportunity toapprove of the chosen topology, and view and operate the topology byexecuting a number of applications on the resultant cloud service.

In another example, an application program interface (API) may be madeavailable that invokes the call functions associated with the desiredtopology (302). In the self-service portal (309) example, the catalog(310) may be made available to the user, may identify to the user theitem or items associated with the desired topology (302), may providethe ability for the user to order a number of services, and provide forthe deployment of the selected topology (302). In one example, thedeployment of the topology (302) may be approved by the user or amanager as defined by an approval workflow before deployment based on,for example, a service level agreement (SLA), cost of the cloudservices, and the policies, among other considerations. In still anotherexample, once the topologies (302) are designed and stored in thecatalog (310), the topologies (302) may be identified by commercialterms and associated descriptions of how the topology (302) may be used.

When a topology (302) has been designed, the topology (302) may beprovisioned on behalf of the user to create a subscription within theSLA. The topology lifecycle management (LCM) engine (311) is a dataprocessing device that will execute the topology (302) to provision anddeploy computing resources to form the cloud service for use by theuser. The topology LCM engine (311) analyzes the topology (302) created,and creates a set of scripts that form execution logic in the form ofthe execution plan to instantiate and realize the topology (302). In oneexample, the set of scripts define a sequence of provisioning anddeployment of computing resources. The topology LCM engine (311) appliesthe policies associated with the topology (302) and the nodes (302-1,302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) of the topology (302) as wellas the policies set for the resources managed by the resource offeringmanager (308).

As a result of the above systems and methods, an instantiated service(312) is provided to the user for use. The instantiated service (312)comprises a number of computing devices that match the designed topology(302) and the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7)within the topology (302). The instantiated service (312) functionsbased on the policies described above. The computing devices that makeup the instantiated service (312) may comprise, for example, servers,switches, client devices, and databases, among many other computingdevices. A realized topology (314) is derived by the LCM engine (311) orother device based on the instantiated service (312).

In addition to the instantiated service (312), a monitoring system (313)is also deployed if not already existent, or setup and configured ifalready available in order to monitor the instantiated service (312).With the inclusion of a monitoring system (313) within thetopology-based management broker (200), the topology-based managementbroker (200) provides for a converged management and security (CM&S)environment. In one example, the CM&S environment may be the CM&Senvironment developed and distributed by Hewlett Packard Corporation. Inanother example, the CM&S environment may be the CM&S environmentdescribed in International Patent App. Pub. No. PCT/US2012/059209,entitled “Hybrid Cloud Environment” to Maes et al., which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety. The CM&S environment providesfor template- and model-based approaches to application and servicedevelopment and deployment, with the ability to bind management andsecurity capabilities to service models at deployment time in order toensure common capabilities across hybrid cloud environments. CM&S alsoprovides portability across private and public cloud environments, whichmay include heterogeneous infrastructures, management, and securitytools. Further, CM&S provides efficient delivery and management of theapplication release, whether the infrastructure resources are onpremise, in the public cloud or in a hybrid environment across publicand private clouds. CM&S also provides role-based, predictive, andreal-time performance and risk insights, and analytics such as, BusinessIntelligence (BI), Business Activity Monitoring (BAM), and big dataanalyses across heterogeneous systems, networks, and cloud environments.

In one example, the monitoring system (313) operates based on themonitoring policies associated with the topology (302) and the nodes(302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) of the topology (302)as described above. In this example, the monitoring system (313) is usedto monitor the operations, the security, the compliance, and the usageof the topology (302) and the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5,302-6, 302-7) of the topology (302), among other items to monitor withinthe instantiated service (312).

In one example, the monitoring system (313) is deployed to monitor theinstantiated service (312) in cases where the monitoring system (313)already exists. In this example, a number of existing monitoring devicesmay be used to monitor the instantiated service (312) autonomously,through human intervention, or a combination thereof by configuring theexisting monitoring system (313) to match the monitoring policiesdefined when designing the topology (302). In this example, themonitoring system (313) already existent may be configured based on themonitoring policies associated with the topology (302) and the nodes(302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) of the topology (302)as described above, configured based on input from a user, orcombinations thereof.

In another example, a previously non-existent monitoring system (313)may be provisioned and deployed based on the monitoring policies definedwhen designing the topology (302). In this example, the monitoringsystem (313) is provisioned and deployed at the same time as theprovisioning and deployment of the instantiated service (312). Further,the monitoring system (313), in this example, is deployed and managedbased on the monitoring policies associated with the topology (302) andthe nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) of thetopology (302) as described above. In any of the above examples, acomplete service as outlined by the topology (302) is created, includingthe instantiated system (312) and the monitoring system (313).

The topology-based management broker (200) further comprises a realizedtopology system management (RTSM) database (315). The RTSM database(315) is a logical system repository of realized topologies (314), andmay be any form of data repository. In one example, the RTSM database(315) comprises a database management system (DBMS). The DBMS is acombination of hardware devices and software modules that interact witha user, other applications, and the database itself to capture andanalyze data. In one example, the RTSM database (315) is a configurationmanagement database (CMDB). A CMDB is a repository of informationrelated to all the components of a realize topology (314).

The DBMS of the RTSM database (315) is designed to allow the definition,creation, querying, update, and administration of a database of realizedtopologies (314). Realized topologies are a model of the topologies(302) with the policies described above associated therewith. Thus, therealized topology (314) comprises a model of the topology (302), withthe policies applied to the various nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4,302-5, 302-6, 302-7). A number of properties of the nodes (302-1, 302-2,302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) of the realized topology (314) aredefined within the realized topology (314). These properties include anydetails of any instantiated service (312) that is created or updated viathe topology-based management broker (200), and may include, forexample, the internet protocol (IP) address of the nodes, andcharacteristics and computing parameters of the nodes, among many otherproperties.

The RTSM (315) is a repository that stores each instance of a realizedtopology (314). In this manner, every time a topology (302) is designed,provisioned, and deployed, the topology-based management broker (200)captures the realized topology (314) of that topology (302). Thus, theRTSM (315) contains a realized topology (314) of every topology (302)that has been instantiated within the topology-based management broker(200) or, through the below-described remediation processes, stores amodification of a realized topology or an instantiated service (312).Thus, in one example, in every instance of the modification of anexisting topology (302), the realized topology (314) resulting from thatmodification is also stored within the RTSM (315). The remediationprocesses will now be described in more detail.

As may happen within the topology-based management broker (200), anumber of events may occur within the topology-based management broker(200). These events may include, for example, a policy failure within anode of the instantiated service (312), a failure of one or morehardware or software components within the instantiated service (312),and an unauthorized access of the instantiated service (312), among manyother computing-related events. Further, the monitoring system (313)monitors a number of performance- and utilization-related events thatmay occur within the instantiated service (312). These performance- andutilization-related events may include, for example, processorutilization within a number of the nodes, utilization of a number of thenodes by, for example, customers of the user's business, and levels ofremaining data storage space within a data storage device, among manyother performance- and utilization-related events.

In one example, the monitoring system (313) informs the event handler(316) of any events detected by the monitoring system (313). The eventhandler (316) is any computing device that receives data associated withdetected events from the monitoring system (313), and processes the datain order to create a number of incidents that may arise from thedetected events.

Thus, the topology-based management broker (200) processes the eventsthat are detected by the monitoring system (313). Processing of eventsdetected by the monitoring system (313) may be performed by the eventhandler (316). The event handler (316) may receive any kind or amount ofdata from the monitoring system (313). As described above, the datareceived from the monitoring system (313) by the event handler (316) mayinclude any data associated with the operation and usage of theinstantiated service (312) as a whole, and the nodes (302-1, 302-2,302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) within the instantiated service (312)as groups of nodes and as individual nodes. In one example, the eventhandler (316) performs a number of requests for the event data. In thisexample, the event handler (316) may poll the monitoring system (313)for the event data after a predefined time period, randomly, whentriggered by another event, or a combination thereof. As describedabove, event handling and processing may, in one example, be delegatedto another system or third party service. For example, event handlingsuch as correlation and filtering of events and incidents and incidentidentification may be delegated to HP BUSINESS SERVICE MANAGEMENT; asuite of service management software tools developed and distributed bythe Hewlett Packard Corporation. Remediation processes may be delegatedto HP OPERATIONS MANAGER I (HP OMi) or SITESCOPE; both comprising asuite of software tools developed and distributed by the Hewlett PackardCorporation. Security event notification, processing, and remediationmay be delegated to HP ARCSIGHT; a suite of service management softwaretools developed and distributed by the Hewlett Packard Corporation. Inone example, HP ARCSIGHT may reference the service agreement (SA)associated with the instantiated service (312) to comply with the SA.

The data received from the monitoring system (313) is processed by theevent handler (316), and the event handler (316) determines whether anevent requires a remediation action, and whether and how to present anotification of the event to a user, administrator, third party, orother user of the topology-based management broker (200) or instantiatedservice (312). If the event handler (316) determines that a remediationaction is to be taken in connection with an event, the event handler(316) generates an incident based on the event, and the data associatedwith the event is sent to a remediation engine (317). In one example,the event handler (316) may process the events received from themonitoring system (313) using a number of processing types. Types ofprocessing that the event handler (316) may perform include filtering,correlation, and aggregation of the events, among other forms of eventprocessing, and combinations thereof. In one example, a number of eventsmay collectively be subjected to a number of forms of event processingin order to create an incident. In this example, the events mayindividually not support the creation of an incident that requiresremediation, but a number of events, when analyzed by the event handler(316), may indicate that an issue within the instantiated topology (312)is not in agreement with the policies (303), or is otherwise in need ofremediation.

In another example, incidents may be identified from a number of ticketsupport systems. For example, an information technology (IT) servicemanagement system (ITSM) (316-1) may also be a source of incidents. AnITSM system (316-1) implements and manages the quality of IT servicesthat meet the needs of the user. In one example, the ITSM system (316-1)is managed by the user, a service provider, a third party, orcombinations thereof, in which a service ticket is opened by one ofthese groups or individuals. In another example, the ITSM system (316-1)may automatically enter a service ticket based on the events detected bythe monitoring system. If the ITSM system (316-1) determines that theinstantiated system (312) or a number of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3,302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) thereof are not appropriately provisioned,are wrongly provisioned, or are otherwise unfit for the instantiatedsystem (312), the ITSM system (316-1) may, like the event handler (316),provide a remediation determination in the form of an incident sent tothe remediation engine (317).

The incidents generated by the event handler (316) and the ITSM system(316-1) may be brought to the attention of a user, administrator, thirdparty, or other user of the topology-based management broker (200) orinstantiated service (312) in the form of a notification. As describedabove, the remediation policies define how a remediation action is to beperformed, and may include: (1) providing notifications to a user,consumer, or administrator; (2) obtaining instructions from the user,consumer, or administrator; (3) taking manual actions input by the user,consumer, or administrator; (4) taking autonomous actions afterreceiving instructions from the user, consumer, or administrator; (5)taking autonomous actions without receiving instructions from the user,consumer, or administrator; (6) taking autonomous actions withoutnotifying the user, consumer, or administrator or receiving instructionsfrom the user, consumer, or administrator; or combinations thereof. Inthis manner, the issuance of notifications within the system is definedby the remediation policies.

The remediation engine (317) executes, via a processor, logic to correctthe incidents reported by the event handler (316) and/or ITSM system(316-1). Remedies issued by the remediation engine (317) may include,for example, allocation of additional computing resources, allocation ofdifferent computing resources, and reallocation of computing resourcesfrom one geographical area to another, among many other remediationactions. In one example, the remediation actions taken by theremediation engine (317) are implemented to remedy a misallocation ofcomputing resources that does not comply with the policies associatedwith the topology (302) designed. In another example, the remediationactions taken by the remediation engine (317) are implemented to remedya failure of a number of computing resources within the instantiatedservice (312). In still another example, the remediation actions takenby the remediation engine (317) are implemented to adjust the securitylevels of the instantiated service (312) and the groups and individualcomputing resources therein. Any number of other remediation actions maybe implemented by the remediation engine (317) for any number ofreasons.

In one example, the remediation actions taken by the remediation engine(317) are implemented with or without notification to a user,administrator, third party, or other user as described above. Further,in another example, the remediation actions taken by the remediationengine (317) are implemented autonomously, without user interaction orconfirmation from a user.

In still another example, the remediation actions taken by theremediation engine (317) are implemented with user interaction from theconsumer, administrator, third party, or other user. In this example,the remediation engine (317) sends data to a self-service subscriptionmanagement engine (318). The self-service subscription management engine(318) executes, via a processor, logic to present information to a userregarding the events detected by the monitoring system (313) and theincidents generated by the event handler (316) and ITSM system (316-1).The self-service subscription management engine (318) also executes, viaa processor, logic to present to a user a number of recommendations forremediation of the events and incidents.

In one example, the self-service subscription management engine (318)executes, via a processor, logic to present a number of graphical userinterfaces (GUIs) (318-1) to a user. In this example, the GUIs (318-1)allow a user to view the realized topology (314), and the eventsdetected by the monitoring system (313) and the incidents generated bythe event handler (316) and ITSM system (316-1). In this manner, theuser is able to identify the problems within the realized topology (314)via the GUIs (318-1) produced by the self-service subscriptionmanagement engine (318). Further, the GUIs (318-1) allow the user toselect a recommended remediation action and define how the remediationaction may be executed.

In another example, the self-service subscription management engine(318) may execute, via a processor, an API to provide to a user a numberof indicators within a representation of the realized topology (314)that represent the problem within the realized topology (314) pairedwith information regarding the problem and which nodes (302-1, 302-2,302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) in the realized topology (314) theproblem is associated with.

When the remediation engine (317) executes its logic to correct theincidents reported by the event handler (316) and ITSM system (316-1),and/or when a user, via the self-service subscription management engine(318), selects a remediation action to be taken, the topology-basedmanagement broker (200) executes a number of calls to a number oflifecycle management actions (LCMAs) to remediate the incidents. LCMAsmay include, for example, duplication, moving, copying, or killing of anumber of computing resources including all or portions of the realizedtopology (314), among other LCMAs.

The topology LCM engine (311) executes a new topology (302) createdthrough the remediation processes to provision and deploy computingresources to form a new instantiated service (312). Thus, the topologyLCM engine (311) iteratively applies the LCMAs received from theself-service subscription management engine (318) and the remediationengine (317) to the realized topology (314) to create the new andsubsequent instantiated service (312).

The remediation processes comprises all of the functionality of themonitoring system (313), the event handler (316), the ITSM system(316-1), the remediation engine (317), the self-service subscriptionmanagement engine (318), the topology LCM engine (311), and combinationsthereof. Any number of iterations of this remediation process may beapplied to successive realized topologies (314) to create successivelynew instantiated services (312). In this manner, the new instantiatedservice (312) will comprise a number of computing resources that matchthe designed topology (302) as well as the changes made by the executedLCMAs via the remediation process. Thus, the topology-based managementbroker (200), with the topology LCM engine (311), derives a new andsubsequent realized topology from the new and subsequent instantiatedservice (312), and stores the subsequent realized topology in the RTSM(315).

Based on the above, the topology-based management broker (200) is ableto provision, deploy, and maintain an instantiated service (312)autonomously with or without user interaction. Thus, in this manner, anumber of applications being executed on the instantiated service (312)are able to be self-executing on the instantiated service (312) by, forexample, calling an API.

As described above, the structures of blueprints (100) are difficult touse as models of applications or templates of infrastructures asCONTINUOUS DELIVERY AUTOMATION (CDA) does. CDA is system tool utilizedwithin a topology designer that independently models infrastructure andapplication requirements while managing versions, configurations, andother application components. CDA 1.2 is also developed and distributedby Hewlett Packard Corporation. The structures of blueprints (100), forthe same reason given above, are difficult to use as models ofapplications because blueprints do not describe the architecture of theapplication. Further, blueprints are difficult to use as templates of aninfrastructure because they also do not describe the architecture of theinfrastructure. As a result, systems aiming at modeling applicationmodels and infrastructure or platform templates, and mapping theapplication models and infrastructure or platform templates to eachother are not easily reconciled with the blueprints because they arebased on different methods of modeling these services. Thereconciliation between the models of a number of applications executedon the deployed service with the infrastructure templates of the servicewill now be described.

As depicted in FIG. 3B, the topology-based management broker (200)further comprises a subsystem capable of independently modelinginfrastructure and application requirements of a topology on the samestack as the subsystem depicted in FIG. 3A. However, as described above,the present systems and associated methods also support all the usecases that a CDA supports such as those CDA 1.2 supports. As describedabove, CDA is a number of software tools utilized within a topologydesigner that independently model infrastructure and applicationrequirements while managing versions, configurations, and otherapplication components. CDA 1.2 is also developed and distributed byHewlett Packard Corporation.

The subsystem of the topology-based management broker (200) depicted inFIG. 3B may be used to design a topology for a number of applications tobe executed on the instantiated service (312). The subsystem of FIG. 3Bassists in the provisioning, deploying, and maintaining of a topologythat supports the applications, and provides application models thatmatch appropriate infrastructure templates. In one example, the modelsof the applications executed on the deployed topology utilize designedtopologies that are easily reconciled with the templates defining theinfrastructure topologies of the topology.

A topology designer (301) may be used to design and create anapplication model (319). The application model (319) is defined by alifecycle management topology. As described above in connection with theLCM topology (302), the application model (319) comprises a number ofnodes (319-1, 319-2, 319-3). A number of policies and lifecyclemanagement actions (LCMA) are associated with each of the nodes (319-1,319-2, 319-3) of the application model (319).

A topology designer (301) may also be used to create a number ofinfrastructure and/or platform templates (320). The templates (320) aredefined by a lifecycle management topology. As described above inconnection with the LCM topology (302), the templates (320) comprise anumber of nodes (320-1, 320-2, 320-3, 320-4, 320-5). A number ofpolicies and lifecycle management actions (LCMA) are also associatedwith each of the nodes (320-1, 320-2, 320-3, 320-4, 320-5) of thetemplates (320).

In one example, the topology designers (301), self-service portal (309),and resource offering manager (308), alone or in combination, mayassociate a number of policies (303) and LCMAs (304) with the nodes(319-1, 319-2, 319-3, 320-1, 320-2, 320-3, 320-4, 320-5) of theapplication model (319) and infrastructure template (320). In anotherexample, a separate policy engine and LCMA engine may be provided toassociate the nodes (319-1, 319-2, 319-3, 320-1, 320-2, 320-3, 320-4,320-5) of the application model (319) and infrastructure template (320)with the policies and LCMAs as described above.

As depicted in FIG. 3B, a number of models (319) may be presented aspossible matches or near matches for a number of infrastructuretemplates (320). In one example, rather than using a topology designer(301), a number of application models (319) resources may be providedwithin the topology-based management broker (200). In this example, thetopology-based management broker (200) may obtain application models(319) from, for example, the catalog (310), the RTSM (315), anothermodel source, or combinations thereof. A user may browse through thesemodel sources and obtain a number of application models (319) that maybe reconciled with the infrastructure templates (320). In this manner,the topology designer (301) may design a number of application models(319) or a number of application models (319) may be obtained from theabove-described resource. Thus, the application models (319) may beapplication topologies designed by the topology designer (301), orrealized application topologies as described above.

Similarly, as depicted in FIG. 3B, a number of templates (320) arepresented as possible matches or near matches for the application model(319). In one example, rather than using a topology designer (301), anumber of template (320) resources may be provided within thetopology-based management broker (200). In this example, thetopology-based management broker (200) may obtain templates (320) from,for example, the catalog (310), the RTSM (315), another template source,or combinations thereof. A user may browse through these templatesources and obtain a number of templates (320) that may be reconciledwith the application model (319). In this manner, the topology designer(301) may design a number of templates (320) or a number of templatesmay be obtained from the above-described resource. Thus, the templates(320) may be infrastructure topologies designed by the topology designer(301), or realized infrastructure topologies as described above.

The CDA subsystem described in FIG. 3B comprises a stitching engine(321) to stitch or combine the application model (319) to theinfrastructure template (320). The stitching engine (321) may use anytype of method to stitch the application model (319) to theinfrastructure template (320) based on the policies and LCMA associatedwith the application model (319) to the infrastructure template (320).In one example, the stitching engine (321) may use a matching process inwhich the stitching engine (321) matches the policies, requirements, andcapabilities associated with the nodes (319-1, 319-2, 319-3) of a numberof application models (319) with the policies, requirements, andcapabilities of the nodes (320-1, 320-2, 320-3, 320-4, 320-5) of anumber of infrastructure templates (320). In this example, the stitchingengine (321) may browse through the template sources described above tofind a match or near match. Once a match is found, the stitching engine(321) matches a number of nodes (319-1, 319-2, 319-3) of the applicationmodel (319) with a number of the nodes (320-1, 320-2, 320-3, 320-4,320-5) of the matching infrastructure template (320).

Another method the stitching engine (321) may use to stitch theapplication model (319) to the infrastructure template (320) maycomprise an algorithmic matching method. In this method, the stitchingengine (321) determines a match mathematically via algorithms thatemploy the policies in performing the matching decisions. In oneexample, this may include inference methods in which requirements in theapplication level are tagged or otherwise associated with componentsthat support them in a library of infrastructure topologies called a DSLdatabase (323), wherein the overall infrastructure template (320) isaggregated first before the aggregation is extended to the applicationmodel (319).

A definitive software library (DSL) is a secure storage device,consisting of physical media or a software repository located on anetwork file server. Definitive authorized versions of all softwareconfiguration items (CIs) or artifacts that may be required to deploythe application designed in the application model (319) may be storedand protected in a DSL. In the present example, a number ofinfrastructure topologies (320) are stored in the DSL. Thus, the DSLcontains master copies of a number of infrastructure topologies (320)developed using the present systems and methods or purchased from anthird party. All related documentation related to the infrastructuretopologies (320) is also stored in the DSL. The DSL database (323) ofthe present topology-based management broker (200) comprises a number ofobjects used in the deployment of the application after the applicationmodel (319) has been developed and is ready for deployment on theinfrastructure template (320). In one example, a topology designer (301)may also provide additional design elements within the topology before,during, and/or after the stitching engine (321) processes theapplication model (319) and the infrastructure template (320) to createthe topology (302) with a number of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4,302-5, 302-6, 302-7).

Once the stitching engine (321) has completed the stitching process asdescribed above, a complete topology (302) is created. The topologycreated by the subsystem of FIG. 3B may have additional policies andLCMAs associated with the nodes as described above in connection withFIG. 3A. The topology (302) created via the subsystem of FIG. 3B may bestored in the catalog (310), the DSL database, or other storage deviceor system. The topology (302) created via the subsystem of FIG. 3B maybe processed in a similar manner as described above in connection withthe topology (302) developed in FIG. 1A. The LCM engine (311) obtainsthe artifacts required to deploy the application designed in theapplication model (319) from the DSL (323) and executes the topology(302).

In one example, an application lifecycle management (ALM) device (322)depicted in FIG. 3A is used to trigger the deployment of the topologydeveloped on the subsystem depicted in FIG. 3B of the overalltopology-based management broker (200). In one example, HewlettPackard's Application Lifecycle Management (HP ALM) is used. HP ALM is aunified software platform developed and distributed by Hewlett PackardCompany. HP ALM assists in accelerating the delivery of secure, reliablemodern applications in a network.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a method for brokering a cloud service,according to one example of the principles described herein. The methodof FIG. 6 includes generating (block 601) a topology (FIGS. 3A and 3B,102). As described above, in one example, a number of topology designers(FIG. 3A, 301) including a number of topology design tools, GUIs, andcoding scripts, may be used by a human designer to design the topology(FIGS. 3A and 3B, 302). The topology (FIGS. 3A and 3B, 302) may bedesigned using either or both of the subsystems depicted in FIGS. 3A and3B. Further, in one example, topologies (FIGS. 3A and 3B, 302) designedand stored may be browsed or search for in a database of topologies(FIGS. 3A and 3B, 302) and used as a portion of the topology (FIGS. 3Aand 3B, 302) to be instantiated.

In one example, topologies (302) may be generated by designing atopology (302) de novo via a number of topology designers (301). Inanother example, the topology may be generated (block 601) by stitchinga number of applications models (FIG. 3B, 319) and a numberinfrastructure templates (FIG. 3B, 320) together using a number ofstitching methods. As will be described in more detail below, thestitching engine (FIG. 3B, 321) may obtain a number of infrastructuretopologies (FIG. 3B, 320), and stitch (FIG. 9, block 903) a number ofapplication models (FIG. 3B, 319) to a number of appropriateinfrastructure templates (FIG. 3B, 320). In another example, theapplication models (FIG. 3B, 319) and infrastructure templates (FIG. 3B,320) may be designed de novo by a number of topology designers (301). Inone example, a number of persons may use the topology designers (301) todesign the topologies (302) in accordance with the method of FIG. 6.These individuals may be service designers, infrastructure architects oradministrators, system administrators, information technology operators,offer managers, or users, among other personnel with roles in the designof a topology. In still another example, the topology designers (301)may be operated by a third party.

The method may continue by associating (block 602) a number of LCMAs(304) with a number of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6,302-7) within the topology (302). In one example, block 602 may beperformed with the resource offering manager (FIG. 3A, 308). The LCMAsorchestrate a number of application programming interfaces (APIs) of anumber of resources for purposes of managing the lifecycle of a givencloud service capability. In one example, the LCMAs are uniform resourceidentifiers (URIs) of application programming interfaces (APIs) thatperform calls in order to execute the APIs.

The method may continue by associating (block 603) a number of policies(FIG. 3A, 303) with a number of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4,302-5, 302-6, 302-7) within the topology (302). In one example,association of policies (FIG. 3A, 303) with a number of nodes (302-1,302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) within the topology (302) maybe performed with the resource offering manager (FIG. 3A, 308). A policyis any data or metadata used to assist in the management of theprovisioning, deploying, monitoring, enforcement, and remediation withina cloud service. The policies may represent a number of rules or sets ofrules that are applicable to the provisioning, deploying, monitoring,enforcement, and remediation tasks associated with a number of computingdevices within a cloud service environment.

The topology (302) may be executed (block 604). In one example, thetopology (302) is executed (block 604) based on the LCMAs (304)associated (block 602) with a number of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3,302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) within the topology (302). Further, inanother example, the topology (302) is executed (block 604) based on thepolicies (303) associated with a number of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3,302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) within the topology (302).

In still another example, a number of scripts may be created forexecution (block 604) of the topology (302). The scripts defineexecutable logic for instantiating a cloud service based on the topology(FIGS. 3A and 3B, 302) and policies (FIG. 3A, 303). The method of FIG. 6will be described in more detail in connection with FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a method for brokering a cloud service,according to another example of the principles described herein. Themethod of FIG. 7 may begin by generating (block 701) a topology. Asdescribed above, in one example, a number of topology designers (FIG.3A, 301) including a number of topology design tools, GUIs, and codingscripts, may be used by a human designer to design the topology (FIGS.3A and 3B, 302). The topology (FIGS. 3A and 3B, 302) may be designedusing either or both of the subsystems depicted in FIGS. 3A and 3B.Further, in one example, topologies (FIGS. 3A and 3B, 302) designed andstored may be browsed or search for in a database of topologies (FIGS.3A and 3B, 302) and used as a portion of the topology (FIGS. 3A and 3B,302) to be instantiated.

In one example, topologies (302) may be generated by designing atopology (302) de novo via a number of topology designers (301). Inanother example, the topology may be generated (block 601) by stitchinga number of applications models (FIG. 3B, 319) and a numberinfrastructure templates (FIG. 3B, 320) together using a number ofstitching methods. As will be described in more detail below, thestitching engine (FIG. 3B, 321) may obtain a number of infrastructuretopologies (FIG. 3B, 320), and stitch (block 903) a number ofapplication models (FIG. 3B, 319) to a number of appropriateinfrastructure templates (FIG. 3B, 320). In another example, theapplication models (FIG. 3B, 319) and infrastructure templates (FIG. 3B,320) may be designed de novo by a number of topology designers (301).

In one example, a number of persons may use the topology designers (301)to design the topologies (302) in accordance with the method of FIG. 6.These individuals may be service designers, infrastructure architects oradministrators, system administrators, information technology operators,offer managers, or users, among other personnel with roles in the designof a topology. In still another example, the topology designers (301)may be operated by a third party.

The method may continue by associating (block 702) a number of policies(FIG. 3A, 303) with a number of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4,302-5, 302-6, 302-7) within the topology (302). In one example, block702 may be performed with the resource offering manager (FIG. 3A, 308).A policy is any data or metadata used to assist in the management of theprovisioning, deploying, monitoring, enforcement, and remediation withina cloud service. The policies may represent a number of rules or sets ofrules that are applicable to the provisioning, deploying, monitoring,enforcement, and remediation tasks associated with a number of computingdevices within a cloud service environment.

At block 703, a number of lifecycle management actions (LCMAs) (FIG. 3A,304) may be applied to a number of nodes within the topology. The LCMAsorchestrate a number of application programming interfaces (APIs) of anumber of resources for purposes of managing the lifecycle of a givencloud service capability. In one example, the LCMAs are uniform resourceidentifiers (URIs) of application programming interfaces (APIs) thatperform calls in order to execute the APIs.

In one example, the policies (FIG. 3A, 303) and LCMAs (FIG. 3A, 304) maybe associated with the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6,302-7) within the topology (302) via data or metadata describing thenodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) of the topology(FIG. 3A, 302). The data or metadata may be provided in a number offiles describing the nodes or topology, or in a file associatedtherewith. In another example, the LCMAs are associated with the aspectsof the topology by default by virtue of what computing device the nodeor nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) represent.

In another example, the LCMAs are associated with the aspects of thetopology by explicitly providing a number of functions, F_(Action), thatdefine how to select a resource provider to implement the action basedon the policies associated with the aspects of the topology and thepolicies of the different relevant resource providers. These functionsdefine how a resource provider is selected to implement the action basedon the policies associated with the aspect of the topology and thepolicies of the different relevant resource providers. In one example,the processes of blocks 702 and 703 may be performed in any orderserially, or in parallel. Further, in one example, a number of personsmay use the topology designers (301) to design the topologies (302) inaccordance with the method of FIG. 6. These individuals may be servicedesigners, infrastructure architects or administrators, systemadministrators, information technology operators, offer managers, orusers, among other personnel with roles in the design of a topology. Instill another example, the topology designers (301) may be operated by athird party.

A number of resource provider policies (308-1) may be associated (block704) with a number of nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6,302-7) within the topology (302). Resource provider policies (308-1) areany policies associated with a number of resource providers' offeringsthat guide the selection of a number of resources. In one example, theresource provider policies (308-1) may be dynamic functions that definethe computing abilities of a computing resource. In this example, acomputing resource that provides a defined level of computing resourcessuch as, for example, processing power, may be provisioned by the LCMengine (311) and resource offering manager (308) if the defined level ofthat computing resource meets a number of requirements within thetopology (302).

The topology (302) may be executed (block 705). In one example, thetopology (302) is executed (block 705) based on the policies, (303),LCMAs (304), resource provider policies (308-1), or combinationsthereof. In one example, a number of scripts may be created forexecution (block 705). The scripts define executable logic forinstantiating a cloud service based on the topology (FIGS. 3A and 3B,302), policies (FIG. 3A, 303), LCMAs (FIG. 3A, 304), resource providerpolicies (308-1), or combinations thereof.

A topology LCM engine (FIG. 3A, 311) instantiates (block 706) thetopology (FIGS. 3A and 3B, 302). In one example, instantiation (block706) of the topology (302) is based on the policies (FIG. 3A, 303),LCMAs (FIG. 3A, 304) resource provider policies (308-1), executablescripts, or combinations thereof. In one example, the topology LCMengine (FIG. 3A, 311) obtains the workflows or sequences of serialand/or parallel scripts created at block 705 during execution, calls aresource provider via the resource offering manager (FIG. 3A, 308), andinstantiates the topology (FIGS. 3A and 3B, 302) based on the policies(FIG. 3A, 303), LCMAs (FIG. 3A, 304) resource provider policies (308-1),and executable scripts to create an instantiated service (FIG. 3A, 312).

A number of realized topologies (FIG. 3A, 314) may be derived (block707) from the instantiated service (FIG. 3A, 312). In one example, thetopology LCM engine (FIG. 3A, 311) derives a realized topology (FIG. 3A,314) from each instantiated service (FIG. 3A, 312). A number of therealized topologies (FIG. 3A, 314) may be stored (block 708) in adatabase of realized topologies. In one example, the LCM engine (FIG.3A, 311) stores the realized topologies (FIG. 3A, 314) in the realizedtopology system management (RTSM) database (FIG. 3A, 315); a logicalsystem repository of realized topologies (FIG. 3A, 314). In one example,the RTSM database (315) comprises a database management system (DBMS).The DBMS is a combination of hardware devices and software modules thatinteract with a user, other applications, and the database itself tocapture and analyze data.

In one example, the RTSM database (FIG. 3A, 315) is a configurationmanagement database (CMDB); a repository of information related to allthe components of a realize topology (FIG. 3A, 314). The realizedtopology (FIG. 3A, 314) comprises a model of the topology (FIG. 3A,302), with the policies applied to the various nodes (FIG. 3A, 302-1,302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7). A number of properties of thenodes (FIG. 3A, 302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) of therealized topology (FIG. 3A, 314) are defined within the realizedtopology (FIG. 3A, 314). These properties include any details of anyinstantiated topology (FIG. 3A, 312) that is created or updated via thetopology-based management broker (FIG. 3A, 200), and may include, forexample, the internet protocol (IP) address of the nodes, andcharacteristics and computing parameters of the nodes, among many otherproperties.

The RTSM (FIG. 3A, 315) is a repository that stores each instance of arealized topology (FIG. 3A, 314). In this manner, every time a topology(FIG. 3A, 302) is designed, provisioned, and deployed, thetopology-based management broker (FIG. 3A, 200) captures the realizedtopology (FIG. 3A, 314) of that instantiated topology (312). Thus, theRTSM (FIG. 3A, 315) contains a realized topology (FIG. 3A, 314) of everytopology (FIG. 3A, 302) that has been instantiated within thetopology-based management broker (FIG. 3A, 200). In one example, inevery instance of the modification of an existing instantiated topology(312), the realized topology (FIG. 3A, 314) resulting from thatmodification is also stored within the RTSM (FIG. 3A, 315).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a method for remediating a number ofincidents within a cloud service, according to one example of theprinciples described herein. The remediation method of FIG. 8 may beperformed alone, or in combination with any number of additional processdescribed herein such as those process described in FIGS. 6, 7, and 8.Further, any block within the method of FIG. 8 may be performed alone orin combination with any number of other processes within FIG. 8. Forexample, a monitoring process described at block 801 may be performedalone without the remaining processes being performed, or less than allof the remaining processes being performed.

The remediation method of FIG. 8 may include monitoring (block 801) aninstantiated topology (FIG. 3A, 312) for a number of events. Themonitoring system (313) monitors (block 801) an instantiated topology(FIG. 3A, 312) based on the monitoring policies associated with thetopology (302) and the nodes (302-1, 302-2, 302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6,302-7) of the topology (302) as described above. In one example, themonitoring system, based on the policies, monitors for a number or setof metrics. A number of events may be derived from the detected metrics.

The monitoring system (313) sends data representing a number of theevents to the event handler (313) based on a number of the policiesassociated with the designed topology (302) and the instantiated service(312). For example, as described above, the monitoring policies includea portion that defines what to do with the monitored events that resultfrom the monitoring such as, for example, how to handle the events,where the events are sent, what devices or individuals address theevents, how incidents resulting from the processing of the events arehandled, how the events and incidents are processed (e.g., processed asaggregated, filtered, or correlated events, among other forms ofprocessing), and how the resulting incidents are handled.

A number of events detected by the monitoring system (313) may beprocessed by the event handler (316) based on a number of the policiesdescribed above. Handling (block 802) of events may include, forexample, processing the events as aggregated, filtered, or correlatedevents, among other forms of processing. Further, based on theabove-described policies, the event handler (313) may handle (block 802)the events by determining whether the events should be processed intoincidents, or whether to notify a number of users of the system (200),for example.

A number of incidents are generated (block 802). In one example, theincidents are created by the event handler (FIG. 3A, 316) based on anumber of policies including, for example, monitoring and remediationpolicies. Further, in one example, the incidents are generated (block803) by the event handler (FIG. 3A, 316) based on the events detected bythe monitoring system (313). In another example, the incidents aregenerated (block 803) by obtaining a number of service tickets from aninformation technology (IT) service management system (ITSM), and, withthe event handler, creating a number of incidents based on the servicetickets. As described above, an ITSM (316-1) may also be a source ofincidents. An ITSM system (316-1) implements and manages the quality ofIT services that meet the needs of the user. In one example, the ITSMsystem (316-1) is managed by the user, a service provider, a thirdparty, or combinations thereof, in which a service ticket is opened byone of these groups or individuals. In another example, the ITSM system(316-1) may automatically enter a service ticket based on the eventsdetected by the monitoring system. If the ITSM system (316-1) determinesthat the instantiated system (312) or a number of nodes (302-1, 302-2,302-3, 302-4, 302-5, 302-6, 302-7) thereof are not appropriatelyprovisioned, are wrongly provisioned, or are otherwise unfit for theinstantiated system (312), the ITSM system (316-1) may, like the eventhandler (316), provide a remediation determination in the form of anincident sent to the remediation engine (317).

The incidents generated by the event handler (316) and the ITSM system(316-1) may be brought to the attention of a user, administrator, thirdparty, or other user of the topology-based management broker (200) orinstantiated service (312) in the form of a notification. A number ofnotifications are sent (block 804) regarding the incidents created bythe event handler (313). These notifications may be sent (block 804) toa number of devices and users within the system (200). For example, anumber of notifications may be sent to the self-service subscriptionmanagement engine (318). The self-service subscription management engine(318) may present the notifications to a user via, for example, the GUI(318-1) associated with the self-service subscription management engine(318). Thus, a number of notifications are presented (block 804) to auser regarding the incidents.

In one example, the process defined by block 804 is optional. Asdescribed above, the event handler (FIG. 3A, 316) may or may not providenotifications to a user based on a number of policies associated withthe instantiated topology (312). When the event handler (FIG. 3A, 316)does dispatch notifications to a user, a varying level of userinteraction may be allowed or required including allowing a user tointeract with, for example, a number of the GUIs (318-1) produced by theself-service subscription management engine (318) before a number ofremediation actions are taken. As described above, remediation policiesdefine whether a notification is to take place, how that notification ishandled, and at what degree user input is allowed or required. Thus, theremediation policies may include: (1) providing notifications to a user,consumer, or administrator; (2) obtaining instructions from the user,consumer, or administrator; (3) taking manual actions input by the user,consumer, or administrator; (4) taking autonomous actions afterreceiving instructions from the user, consumer, or administrator; (5)taking autonomous actions without receiving instructions from the user,consumer, or administrator; (6) taking autonomous actions withoutnotifying the user, consumer, or administrator or receiving instructionsfrom the user, consumer, or administrator; (7) proposing a remediationaction to a user or administrator for approval, and performing theproposed remediation action if approved by the user or administrator, orcombinations thereof.

At block 805, a number of function calls are generated. The functioncalls issued to the LCM engine (311) by the remediation engine (317) toremediate the incidents may be based on a number of LCMAs associatedwith the elements of the instantiated topology (312), the incidents tobe remediated, and the policies associated with the elements of thetopology (302). In this manner, the remediation engine (317) executes,via a processor, logic to correct the incidents reported by the eventhandler (316) and/or ITSM system (316-1) in order to generate (block805) the function calls.

Using the function calls generated by the remediation engine (317), thetopology LCM engine (FIG. 3A, 311) modifies (block 806) an instantiatedtopology (FIG. 3A, 312) based on the subsequent LCMAs created by theremediation engine (317). Modification of an instantiated topology (FIG.3A, 312) may include modifying the topology (312) or a portion thereof,modifying the a number of nodes or a group of nodes, addition of anumber of nodes, groups of nodes, or topologies, deletion of a number ofnodes, groups of nodes, or topologies, among many other types of changesthat may be made to an instantiated service (312). Further, modificationof the instantiated topology (312) may include re-instantiation of apreviously instantiated topology (312).

A subsequent realized topology (FIG. 3A, 314) may be derived (block 807)from the modified topology (FIG. 3A, 312), and stored (block 808) in adatabase of realized topologies. In one example, the LCM engine (FIG.3A, 311) stores the realized topologies (FIG. 3A, 314) in the realizedtopology system management (RTSM) database (FIG. 3A, 315).

A determination (block 809) may be made as to whether monitoring of aninstantiated topology (FIG. 3A, 312) is to end. Reasons to end themonitoring of an instantiated topology (FIG. 3A, 312) may include, forexample, completion of a contract such as an SLA, ending of the cloudservices provided by one or more service providers. If it is determinedthat monitoring of the instantiated topology (FIG. 3A, 312) is to end(block 809, determination YES), then the process terminates. If,however, it is determined that monitoring of the instantiated topology(FIG. 3A, 312) is not to end (block 809, determination NO), then theprocess loops back to block 801, and the process of remediation isrepeated. In one example, the remediation process may be performed anynumber of iterations throughout the lifecycle of an originallyinstantiated topology (FIG. 3A, 312). In this manner, events that mayoccur within the instantiated topology (FIG. 3A, 312) may be addressedin order to maintain a working instantiated topology (FIG. 3A, 312).Further, the remediation process described in FIG. 8 allows for theinstantiated topology (FIG. 3A, 312) to be amended or adjusted toprovide a scalable instantiated topology (FIG. 3A, 312).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a method of designing a topology,according to one example of the principles described herein. The methodof FIG. 9 may begin by generating (block 901) an application model (FIG.3B, 319). In one example, a topology designer (301) may be used todesign and create the application model (FIG. 3B, 319), and, in thismanner, generate (701) an application model (FIG. 3B, 319). In anotherexample, the application model (FIG. 3B, 319) may be obtained from anumber of application model (FIG. 3B, 319) sources such as, for example,the catalog (FIG. 1A, 310), the RTSM (FIG. 1A, 315), or the DSL database(FIG. 3B, 323), among other application model (FIG. 3B, 319) sources.The application model (FIG. 3B, 319) is defined by a lifecyclemanagement topology. As described above in connection with the LCMtopology (FIG. 3A, 302), the application model (FIG. 3B, 319) comprisesa number of nodes (FIG. 3B, 319-1, 319-2, 319-3).

A number of infrastructure templates (FIG. 3B, 320) may also begenerated (block 902). In one example, a topology designer (301) may beused to design and create the infrastructure template (FIG. 3B, 320). Inanother example, the infrastructure template (FIG. 3B, 320) may beobtained from a number of infrastructure template (FIG. 3B, 320) sourcessuch as, for example, the catalog (FIG. 1A, 310), the RTSM (FIG. 1A,315), or the DSL database (FIG. 3B, 323), among other infrastructuretemplate (FIG. 3B, 320) sources. The infrastructure template (FIG. 3B,320) is defined by a lifecycle management topology. As described abovein connection with the LCM topology (FIG. 3A, 302), the infrastructuretemplate (FIG. 3B, 320) comprises a number of nodes (FIG. 3B, 319-1,319-2, 319-3). In one example, a number of persons may use the topologydesigners (301) to design the application models (FIG. 3B, 319) andinfrastructure templates (FIG. 3B, 320). These individuals may beservice designers, infrastructure architects or administrators, systemadministrators, information technology operators, offer managers, orusers, among other personnel with roles in the design of a topology.

A number of application models (FIG. 3B, 319) are stitched (block 903)to a number of infrastructure templates (FIG. 3B, 320). In one example,the stitching engine (FIG. 3B, 321) may obtain a number ofinfrastructure topologies (FIG. 3B, 320) stored in, for example, the DSLdatabase (FIG. 3B, 323) or other source of infrastructure templates(320), and stitch (block 902) a number of application models (FIG. 3B,319) to a number of appropriate infrastructure templates (FIG. 3B, 320).In another example, the infrastructure templates (FIG. 3B, 320) may bedesigned de novo by a number of topology designers (301).

The stitching engine (FIG. 3B, 321) may use any type of method to stitchthe application models (FIG. 3B, 319) to the infrastructure templates(FIG. 3B, 320) based on the policies and LCMA associated with theapplication models (FIG. 3B, 319) to the infrastructure templates (FIG.3B, 320). In one example, the stitching engine (FIG. 3B, 321) may use amatching process in which the stitching engine (FIG. 3B, 321) matchesthe policies, requirements, and capabilities associated with the nodes(FIG. 3B, 319-1, 319-2, 319-3) of the application models (FIG. 3B, 319)with the policies, requirements, and capabilities of the nodes (FIG. 3B,320-1, 320-2, 320-3, 320-4, 320-5) of the infrastructure templates (FIG.3B, 320). In this example, the stitching engine (FIG. 3B, 321) maybrowse through the template sources described above to find a match ornear match. Once a match is found, the stitching engine (FIG. 3B, 321)matches a number of nodes (FIG. 3B, 319-1, 319-2, 319-3) of theapplication models (319) with a number of the nodes (FIG. 3B, 320-1,320-2, 320-3, 320-4, 320-5) of the matching infrastructure templates(FIG. 3B, 320).

Another method the stitching engine (FIG. 3B, 321) may use to stitch theapplication models (FIG. 3B, 319) to the infrastructure templates (FIG.3B, 320) may comprise an algorithmic matching method. In this method,the stitching engine (FIG. 3B, 321) determines mathematically viaalgorithms that employ the policies in performing the matchingdecisions. In one example, this may include inference methods in whichrequirements in the application level are tagged or otherwise associatedwith components that support them in the DSL database (FIG. 3B, 323),wherein the overall infrastructure topology (FIG. 3B, 320) is aggregatedfirst before the aggregation is extended to the application models (FIG.3B, 319).

A number of policies and lifecycle management actions (LCMAs) areassociated (blocks 704 and 705) with each of the nodes (FIG. 3B, 319-1,319-2, 319-3) of the application model (FIG. 3B, 319) and nodes of theinfrastructure topology (FIG. 3B, 320). In one example, the association(blocks 704 and 705) of the number of policies (303) and LCMAs (304)with the nodes (319-1, 319-2, 319-3, 320-1, 320-2, 320-3, 320-4, 320-5)of the application model (319) and infrastructure topology (320) may beperformed by the topology designers (301), self-service portal (309),and resource offering manager (308), alone or in combination. In anotherexample, a separate policy engine and LCMA engine may be provided toassociate the nodes (319-1, 319-2, 319-3, 320-1, 320-2, 320-3, 320-4,320-5) of the application model (319) and infrastructure topology (320)with the policies (303) and LCMAs (304) as described above.

In one example, the processes of blocks 704 and 705 of associatingpolicies (303) and lifecycle management actions (LCMAs) (304) with eachof the nodes (FIG. 3B, 319-1, 319-2, 319-3) of the application model(319) and nodes of the infrastructure topology (FIG. 3B, 320) may beperformed before, during, or after the stitching process described inconnection with block 903. In one example where policies and LCMAs areassociated before the stitching process of block 902, the policies (303)and LCMAs (304) may be associated with a number of nodes or groups ofnodes within the application model (319) and infrastructure topology(320), as well as with the application model (319) as a whole andinfrastructure topology (320) as a whole. In this example, additionalpolicies (303) and LCMAs (304) may be associated with the topology (302)created via the stitching process of block 902. In another example, theprocesses of blocks 704 and 705 of associating policies (303) andlifecycle management actions (LCMAs) (304) with each of the nodes (FIG.3B, 319-1, 319-2, 319-3) of the application model (319) and nodes of theinfrastructure topology (FIG. 3B, 320) may be optional as to performanceof these processes after the stitching process of block 902. In stillanother example, the processes of blocks 704 and 705 of associatingpolicies (303) and lifecycle management actions (LCMAs) (304) with eachof the nodes (FIG. 3B, 319-1, 319-2, 319-3) of the application model(319) and nodes of the infrastructure topology (FIG. 3B, 320) may beperformed before and after stitching process of block 902.

The above processes described in FIG. 9 results in a completely designedtopology (302) similar to the topology (302) described above inconnection with FIG. 3A. Thus, the method described in FIG. 9 may befurther associated with the process described herein regarding FIGS. 6,7, and 8. For example, the topology (FIG. 3B, 302) resulting from themethod of FIG. 9 may be used as the input topology (FIG. 3A, 302) forthe method described in connection with FIGS. 6 and 7 at, for example,blocks 601 and 701. Further, in another example, the topology (FIG. 3B,302) resulting from the method of FIG. 9 may be used as the inputtopology (FIG. 3A, 302) for instantiation in the remediation methoddescribed in connection with FIG. 8. Further still, in one example, anumber of persons participate in the method described in FIG. 9. Theseindividuals may be service designers, infrastructure architects oradministrators, system administrators, information technology operators,offer managers, or users, among other personnel with roles in thedesign, execution, monitoring, and remediation of a topology (302).

Aspects of the present system and method are described herein withreference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods,apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to examplesof the principles described herein. Each block of the flowchartillustrations and block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and block diagrams, may be implemented bycomputer usable program code. The computer usable program code may beprovided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purposecomputer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce amachine, such that the computer usable program code, when executed via,for example, the a number of processors within the devices comprisingthe topology-based management broker (200) or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, implement the functions or acts specified in theflowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. In one example, thecomputer usable program code may be embodied within a computer readablestorage medium; the computer readable storage medium being part of thecomputer program product. In one example, the computer readable storagemedium is a non-transitory computer readable medium.

The specification and figures describe methods and systems of managingthe lifecycle of cloud service modeled as a topology. These systems andmethods include, with a processor, generating a topology, the topologyrepresenting a cloud service, associating a number of lifecyclemanagement actions (LCMAs) with a number of nodes within the topology,and with a lifecycle management engine, executing the topology.

This management of the lifecycle of a cloud service modeled as atopology may have a number of advantages, including: (1) providing acommon stack along with common use of topologies, realized topologies,and policies may be used to support all use cases for both cloud serviceautomation (CSA) and continued delivery automation (CDA) platforms andservices to construct topologies while utilizing the same technology andsupporting multiple providers' associated technologies; (2) providing acomputing environment in which CSA and CDA use the same topologyrepresentations such as, for example, extensible mark-up language (XML)or JavaScript object mutation (JSON); (3) providing a method of managingmigration of content for CSA by reusing existing CSA content, creating apath to migrate resource providers, and reusing providers; (4) avoidingor alleviating the risk of perpetuating a CSA/CDA confusion, duplicationof efforts and endangering future CSA opportunities; (5) complexapplications may be automatically deployed on requested infrastructurewithout also requiring users to understand how to perform suchoperations, and (6) supports a CM&S environment, among many otheradvantages.

The preceding description has been presented to illustrate and describeexamples of the principles described. This description is not intendedto be exhaustive or to limit these principles to any precise formdisclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light ofthe above teaching.

What is claimed:
 1. A non-transitory computer-readable data storagemedium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, causethe processor to: generate an architecture-derived topology via atopology designer or by stitching an application model to aninfrastructure template; receive a blueprint-derived topology, whereinthe blueprint-derived topology is non-architecture derived topology thatspecifies an execution flow that does not identify relationships tophysical topologies including infrastructure architecture; attachpolicies to nodes of both blueprint-derived topologies andarchitecture-derived policies, wherein the policies include aprovisioning policy, a deploying policy, a monitoring policy, anenforcing policy, or a remediating policy; instantiate, via a commonplatform that supports both blueprint-derived topologies andarchitecture-derived topologies, a cloud service by executing a selectedtopology in accordance with policies attached to the selected topologyto generate a realized topology, wherein the selected topology is thearchitecture-derived topology or the blueprint-derived topology; andexecute, via the common platform, lifecycle management actions on arealized topology derived from the instantiated cloud service.
 2. Thenon-transitory computer-readable data storage medium of claim 1, whereinthe topology designer is an integrated part of a management broker ofthe common platform.
 3. The non-transitory computer-readable datastorage medium of claim 1, wherein the application model is designed viathe topology designer.
 4. The non-transitory computer-readable datastorage medium of claim 3, wherein the infrastructure template isdesigned via the topology designer.
 5. The non-transitorycomputer-readable data storage medium of claim 1 storing instructionsthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to separate atopology into a plurality of topologies and attach each topology of theplurality of topologies to a policy.
 6. The non-transitorycomputer-readable data storage medium of claim 1, storing instructionsthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to maintain atopology database, store a realized topology derived from theinstantiated cloud service into the topology database, and update therealized topology.
 7. A system comprising: a processor; and anon-transitory storage medium storing instructions for providing acommon platform that supports both cloud service automation andcontinuous delivery automation, wherein the instructions, when executedby the processor, cause the processor to: generate anarchitecture-derived topology via a topology designer or by stitching anapplication model to an infrastructure template, receive ablueprint-derived topology, wherein the blueprint-derived topology isnon-architecture derived topology that specifies an execution flow thatdoes not identify relationships to physical topologies includinginfrastructure architecture, attach policies to nodes of bothblueprint-derived topologies and architecture-derived policies, whereinthe policies include a provisioning policy, a deploying policy, amonitoring policy, an enforcing policy, or a remediating policy,instantiate, via the common platform, a cloud service by executing aselected topology in accordance with policies attached to the selectedtopology to generate a realized topology, wherein the common platformsupports instantiating both architecture-derived topologies and theblueprint-derived topologies, and execute, via the common platform,lifecycle management actions on a realized topology derived from theinstantiated cloud service.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein theselected topology is obtained from a catalog of stored topologies. 9.The system of claim 7, wherein the infrastructure template specifies theinfrastructure and lifecycle conditions for the topology.
 10. The systemof claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor,cause the processor to provide the topology designer via a graphicaluser interface.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein the application modeland the infrastructure template are obtained from a catalog.
 12. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed by theprocessor, cause the processor to separate a topology into a pluralityof topologies and attach each topology of the plurality of topologies toa policy.
 13. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the processor to maintain a topologydatabase, store a realized topology derived from the instantiated cloudservice into the topology database, and update the realized topology.14. A method comprising: generating, by a processor-based commonplatform that supports both cloud service automation and continuousdelivery automation, an architecture-derived topology via a topologydesigner or by stitching an application model to an infrastructuretemplate, wherein architecture-derived topologies defines physicalarchitectures of cloud services; receiving, by the common platform, ablueprint-derived topology, wherein the blueprint-derived topology isnon-architecture derived topology that specifies an execution flow thatdoes not identify relationships to physical topologies includinginfrastructure architecture; attaching, by the common platform, policiesto nodes of both blueprint-derived topologies and architecture-derivedpolicies, wherein the policies include a provisioning policy, adeploying policy, a monitoring policy, an enforcing policy, or aremediating policy; instantiating, by the common platform which supportsinstantiating both architecture-derived topologies and theblueprint-derived topologies, a cloud service by executing a selectedtopology in accordance with policies attached to the selected topologyto generate a realized topology, wherein the selected topology is thearchitecture-derived topology or the blueprint-derived topology; andexecuting, by the common platform, lifecycle management actions on arealized topology derived from the instantiated cloud service.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, wherein attaching policies to the nodes ofblueprint-derived topologies and architecture-derived policies isperformed while the blueprint-derived topologies andarchitecture-derived policies are designed.
 16. The method of claim 15,wherein the policies are defined via the topology designer.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, further comprising changing a design of the selectedtopology in response to adding a new policy to the selected topology.18. The method of claim 15, wherein attaching policies to the nodes isperformed when the selected topology is selected.
 19. The method ofclaim 15, wherein attaching policies to the nodes is performed when theselected topology is selected.
 20. The method of claim 15, whereinattaching policies to the nodes is an automated matching process.